September 20, 2004
THE NEWS MEDIA
CBS News Concludes It Was Misled on National Guard Memos, Network Officials Say
By JIM RUTENBERG

After days of expressing confidence about the documents used in a "60 Minutes'' report that raised new questions about President Bush's National Guard service, CBS News officials have grave doubts about the authenticity of the material, network officials said last night.

The officials, who asked not to be identified, said CBS News would most likely make an announcement as early as today that it had been deceived about the documents' origins. CBS News has already begun intensive reporting on where they came from, and people at the network said it was now possible that officials would open an internal inquiry into how it moved forward with the report. Officials say they are now beginning to believe the report was too flawed to have gone on the air.

But they cautioned that CBS News could still pull back from an announcement. Officials met last night with Dan Rather, the anchor who presented the report, to go over the information it had collected about the documents one last time before making a final decision. Mr. Rather was not available for comment late last night.

The report relied in large part on four memorandums purported to be from the personal file of Mr. Bush's squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, who died 20 years ago. The memos, dated from the early 1970's, said that Colonel Killian was under pressure to "sugar coat'' the record of the young Lieutenant Bush and that the officer had disobeyed a direct order to take a physical.

Mr. Rather and others at the network are said to still believe that the sentiment in the memos accurately reflected Mr. Killian's feelings but that the documents' authenticity was now in grave doubt...OF COURSE, THEIR 'BELIEFS' IS NOT WHAT SHOULD BE REPORTED. TRICKY THING-THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO PROVE WHAT THEY ARE SAYING.

...But officials decided yesterday that they would most likely have to declare that they had been misled about the records' origin after Mr. Rather and a top network executive, Betsy West, met in Texas with a man who was said to have helped the news division obtain the memos, a former Guard officer named Bill Burkett.

Mr. Rather interviewed Mr. Burkett on camera this weekend, and several people close to the reporting process said his answers to Mr. Rather's questions led officials to conclude that their initial confidence that the memos had come from Mr. Killian's own files was not warranted. These people indicated that Mr. Burkett had previously led the producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, to have the utmost confidence in the material.

It was unclear last night if Mr. Burkett had told Mr. Rather that he had been misled about the documents' provenance or that he had been the one who did the misleading.

In an e-mail message yesterday, Mr. Burkett declined to answer any questions about the documents.

Yesterday, Emily J. Will, a document specialist who inspected the records for CBS News and said last week that she had raised concerns about their authenticity with CBS News producers, confirmed a report in Newsweek that a producer had told her that the source of the documents said they had been obtained anonymously and through the mail.

In an interview last night she declined to name the producer who told her this but said the producer was in a position to know. CBS News officials have disputed her contention that she warned the network the night before the initial "60 Minutes'' report that it would face questions from documents experts.

In the coming days CBS News officials plan to focus on how the network moved ahead with the report when there were warning signs that the memorandums were not genuine.

Ms. Will is one of two documents experts consulted by the network who said they raised doubts about the material before the segment was broadcast. Another expert, Marcel B. Matley, said in interviews that he had vouched only for Colonel Killian's signatures on the records and not the authenticity of the records themselves. Mr. Matley said he could not rule out that the signatures had been cut and pasted from official records pertaining to Colonel Killian.

In examining where the network had gone wrong, officials at CBS News turning their attention to Ms. Mapes, one of their most respected producers, who was riding particularly high this year after breaking news about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal for the network...

...One person close to the situation said the critical question would be, "Where was everybody's judgment on that last day?''

Where was everybody's judgement on that last day? The same place it's been EVERY day for the last thirty years: Advance that which is expedient to Democrats and embarrasing to Republicans - and the truth be damned!

Thus, far I have not commented on this story because I had a hard time believing that even CBS could be so incompetent.

In my opinion this is the minimum that should happen:

The President of CBS should get on prime-time TV and apologize to the nation and President Bush. He should specify the new verification techniques that CBS will enact to make sure this type of thing never happens again.

Mary Mapes, the producer of the original 60 Minutes story, should be fired. Twice.

At a minimum, Dan Rather should be suspended for 90 days from any CBS network activity. But only if he agrees to publicly apologize. If he refuses, then he should be fired.

Thus, far I have not commented on this story because I had a hard time believing that even CBS could be so incompetent.

In my opinion this is the minimum that should happen:

The President of CBS should get on prime-time TV and apologize to the nation and President Bush. He should specify the new verification techniques that CBS will enact to make sure this type of thing never happens again.

Mary Mapes, the producer of the original 60 Minutes story, should be fired. Twice.

At a minimum, Dan Rather should be suspended for 90 days from any CBS network activity. But only if he agrees to publicly apologize. If he refuses, then he should be fired.

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I agree, though I think the President of CBS and Rather should also be fired. Not for the story, that was just sloppy, but for the cover-up attempt. For still trying to blame GW for not replying to a non-story.

I agree, though I think the President of CBS and Rather should also be fired. Not for the story, that was just sloppy, but for the cover-up attempt. For still trying to blame GW for not replying to a non-story.

Click to expand...

I think that's the part that gripes me the most. "Never mind whether or not my story has any merit - what is your RESPONSE, Mr. President?" The scary part is, I don't think this was purely a defensive, deflective strategy, but more a truly accurate gauge of Dan Rather's arrogance! He truly believes that ANY question he poses should be accompanied by trumpets from on high, and an awed, reverent answer - for he is "The Dan". What a psycho. He's headed for the junkyard, where he belongs.

You guys don't think CBS will accept responsibility do you?
My guess is this, this is the part were we see them (CBS) scramble to
reveal that always protected source. Hey that'll get em off the hook.
Remember that famous liberal whine..."IT'S NOT MY FAULT".

I think they're getting their pointing fingers aimed at Mr. Burkett.
I could be wrong. (Hope that makes sense it's early..only one cup down)

Mr. P is right on the money. Per the liberal mantra - they'll portray themselves as, what else? V-I-C-T-I-M-S. It's not our fault that we rushed to get this on the air without vetting it properly.

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There's certainly precedent for what you guys are saying - thirty-plus years worth of it. But, I'm pinning my hopes on the fact that it's a brand new day in journalism. These self-appointed purveyors of all that is fit for us to hear are in for a rude awakening. They can no longer pass their propoganda off as "news". They're going to have to deal with actual STANDARDS of accuracy and objectivity. It's not a one-way street any more.

As to Rather, specifically, though, I'll have to admit that you're probably right. There'll be no "clean slate"; no apologies or high-level firings. But they'll find some face-saving scenario for getting rid of Rather. Money's talking, and bullshit's gonna walk.

You guys don't think CBS will accept responsibility do you?
My guess is this, this is the part were we see them (CBS) scramble to
reveal that always protected source. Hey that'll get em off the hook.
Remember that famous liberal whine..."IT'S NOT MY FAULT".

I think they're getting their pointing fingers aimed at Mr. Burkett.
I could be wrong. (Hope that makes sense it's early..only one cup down)

Click to expand...

Burkett HATES Bush and has had a personal vendetta going against him for years. I'm not going to try to be Mr. Predicto on this one but a variety of scenarios are available. Since Rather has already interviewed this guy, it has also has been edited to suit the purpose of its' airing. I'm all for CBS handling the fallout anyway they want. They already have been hung out to dry once. Maybe they will hang themselves again by handling the aftermath in a similar manner. My interest now is to see how the other networks cover the "admission".

"Since Rather has already interviewed this guy, it has also been edited to suit the purpose of it's airing".

If only the public at large could be made to understand the simple truth of that statement. Per "truth in advertising" laws, CBS should be forced to flash that disclaimer across the screen, intermittently, throughout the show.

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